June 11, 2002

5:04 PM

911 has had a tremendous impact on us all, and especially on Dolpho, a drug sniffing dog that can also apparently tell the difference between Blacks and Whites. So now a Pennsylvania councilwoman has moved to put the German shepherd to sleep for his racial profiling tactics while on the job. WOW, almost seems like an Onion piece, although I guess foxnews isn't far from it :)
posted by Why (19 comments total)

So now a Pennsylvania councilwoman has moved to put the German shepherd to sleep for his racial profiling tactics while on the job.

Some things never change.

WOW, almost seems like an Onion piece, although I guess foxnews isn't far from it :)

Including condemnation of Fox News for not being leftist enough. Gotta love the classics.
posted by ljromanoff at 5:09 PM on June 11, 2002

why kill it?

do we kill racist people?

can a dog even be racist?

can't they just allow the dog to be a pet, expell it from the police force, but let it live?

whats the point?
posted by Satapher at 5:20 PM on June 11, 2002

Honest to god, if you want to have a good laugh, and it being Tuesday maybe you're looking for one, I strongly suggest you actually read this story.
posted by Why at 5:22 PM on June 11, 2002

This issue can only be settled with a grudge match between Al Sharpton and Peter Singer.

"The dog saw movement. There was a lot of noise — a lot of screaming," Barger said. "It was basically just complete chaos and the dog, he just could not tell who the bad guy was and who the good people were."

At the time the officer (Barger) was wrestling with the assailant and the dog was released accidentally. Honestly, how someone as stupid as this woman could be elected to the city council... This is exactly like The Onion article accusing animals of sexually predatory behavior, except funnier, because it's true.
posted by insomnyuk at 5:59 PM on June 11, 2002

Dogs always have an agenda...
posted by fuq at 6:38 PM on June 11, 2002

funny, the local talk radio I was listening to today was talking about this.

They then took calls from listeners to see what they thought about it all...strange thing was, tons of people called in to talk about a dog they had at some point that was "racist". No good reason for it, they would just go berserk when a person of a certain background was around.

A couple had mentioned they had talked to a vet about it, and the reasoning given was that some dogs simply didn't like the smell of a race who was not the same as their owners.

Huh. Odd.
posted by Windigo at 6:40 PM on June 11, 2002

i had a dog that would *freak out* with black people, especially children, or in toolbelts, or with brooms... he had issues...

oh, also, i didn't think drug sniffing dogs were the same dogs that were trained to attack? also i thought dogs held onto their target without biting unless the controller person said to.
posted by rhyax at 6:49 PM on June 11, 2002

dolpho the racial profiling dog, priceless!
posted by kliuless at 6:53 PM on June 11, 2002

Racial profiling issue aside, the dog attacked a 9 year old kid, supposedly when released "by accident". If you've got a dog that attacks people without actually being sicced on to them, you've got a Bad Dog.

"I had received complaints from African-Americans saying they believe the dog only attacks African-Americans," councilwoman Dixon said Monday. "I think the dog makes the distinction."

Councilwoman Dixon is obviously a nutjob.
posted by Catch at 6:54 PM on June 11, 2002

Perhaps Councilwoman Wanda Jones Dixon should be put to sleep.

Actually, we had a dog that hated women for some reason. Perhaps because it was always around men, and the rare women that it saw had high, screechy voices. But if a woman came to the door or near the yard, it went nuts. If men (black or otherwise) came around, it was totally silent.
posted by evanizer at 7:00 PM on June 11, 2002

whatta we spossed ta do, kill the bitch.
posted by clavdivs at 7:05 PM on June 11, 2002

And a councilwoman is ...like..supposed to waste her time on such canine issues ? Hope voters get a clue for next election time.

And..just to add my 0.00069 cents..even if the dog is discriminating, he isn't because of some prejudice sowhat's the point ? Bah !
posted by elpapacito at 7:18 PM on June 11, 2002

There is a great film by Samuel Fuller, White Dog, on precisely this subject: a dog that has been trained to selectively attack black people.
posted by Rebis at 7:34 PM on June 11, 2002

i have nothing to say.
posted by zeoslap at 9:42 PM on June 11, 2002

don't they usually put down a dog that attacks a person for no reason? how well trained is a dog that sees its master/handler/partner wrestling with one person but goes to attack another?
posted by tolkhan at 8:20 AM on June 12, 2002

Couldn't they just take the dog off the force? When a police officer is accused on wrong-doing, they're fired (well, in a perfect world, anyway). Why not fire Dolpho?
posted by me3dia at 9:22 AM on June 12, 2002

The dog I had growing up was the reverse of Evanizer's dog. She LOVED women and kids (boys and girls) but she was absolutely terrified of men. The only man she had no problem with was my dad...when any man came to the house, she'd run into her cage and hide there, shaking the whole time. She did get over this when she was much older, but it was odd.
posted by SisterHavana at 9:37 AM on June 12, 2002

And a councilwoman is ...like..supposed to waste her time on such canine issues ?

When you're a councilperson in a small boro, and an incident occurs which puts that boro at liability for a massive law suit, yes, it's your business. And when it happens to a small child and gets an entire community up in arms (it's the mother who started the whole "the dog is racist and needs to be put down" thing, btw, and she has all of her friends and family backing her up) then council people have no choice but to react.

There's no evidence to suggest that the dog went after the child because he's black. There is evidence that the dog went after the child because he was inadequately restrained by Officer Barger. If the dog has a history of only being used against black suspects, that would be because he was acting at the instruction of his handler, Officer Barger. More level heads have pointed this out to more levelheaded members of the McKees Rocks council, and hopefully the result will be two things -- Dolpho will be taken off of the force (simply because a dog that attacked a small child and ignored usual commands to desist should not be on the streets) and Officer Barger will have his record thoroughly reviewed.
posted by Dreama at 9:48 AM on June 12, 2002

I've worked with a lot of animals, and this is quite common, though it is usually a result of some bias on an owner's part. Most dogs distrust people that they don't know. A drug-sniffing dog shouldn't attack anyone ever. An attack dog should only attack someone who the owner has trained it to attack. (My dog is allowed to attack anyone because she weighs 7 pounds.) Irresponsible pet owners create problems, whether they are the police force or your neighbor
(or what dreama said)
posted by goneill at 11:04 AM on June 12, 2002